Rishi Sunak has 'good reason' to remove the Tory whip from 'terrible person' Boris Johnson, Rory Stewart says
28 February 2023, 19:04 | Updated: 1 March 2023, 01:13
Rishi Sunak would have good reason to withdraw the whip from Boris Johnson, Rory Stewart has said.
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Speaking on LBC's Tonight with Andrew Marr on Tuesday, former Conservative MP Mr Stewart said that former PM Mr Johnson was "a terrible person" and a "terrible Prime Minister".
Mr Stewart - who himself lost the Tory whip in 2019 for voting against Mr Johnson's government as part of a rebellion against a no-deal Brexit - said that Mr Johnson had behaved "outrageously" and "disloyally".
He told Andrew: "Boris Johnson threw out myself, and Ken Clarke and Nicholas Soames and 21 people who voted against the type of Brexit deal he was pushing ahead with.
"And we certainly weren’t behaving quite as outrageously and disloyally as Boris Johnson seems to have been behaving recently - so he'd have good reason to do it".
Rory Stewart tells Andrew Marr the PM has ‘good reason’ to kick out Boris Johnson
But Mr Stewart added that removing the whip from Mr Johnson would be difficult because "at the point at which Boris Johnson threw us out, the Conservative Party was very much caught up in the Brexit movement… I think that isn't the case now."
He said: "Boris Johnson, although I loathe him - I think he is a terrible person, terrible Prime Minister - is still popular with many people in the Conservative Party, and it would be a big step."
Mr Stewart considered a run for London mayor in 2020, but suspended his candidacy after the race was pushed back because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Asked whether he would re-join the Conservative Party, he said: "It is definitely a party I am more sympathetic to. I'm very, very proud of what Rishi Sunak did, I'm proud to praise him… I’m not quite there yet I guess, not quite there yet.
"But I think it is a lovely development in a sense that I was very worried we were living in the age of populism, I was worried we were living in an age of very, very superficial, very simplistic coarse politics.
"I think Rishi Sunak, and to some extent Keir Starmer, represent a move back to a more thoughtful style of politics."
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Pressed on whether he would vote for the Conservatives in the future, Mr Stewart said: "I've been much, much more impressed.
"So, for someone like me who represents the sort-of left of the Conservative Party, the centre of the Conservative party, the last week has transformed my perception of Rishi Sunak."
